300Drive's Swamp Visit

[Yoda]

300D is an excellent example of the promise of The Golfing Machine: Where desire and work ethic meet the correct information...Magic happens!

Courtesy of his airline, we didn't get in quite as much time as we had planned: He arrived on time, but not so his Clubs...they never did make it. Time spent chasing them down plus his emergency trip to Edwin Watts for shoes and a glove caused our traditional Cracker Barrel breakfast and Geometry lesson to go by the wayside. Not to worry, though, he's got a rain check with no expiry!

His major Swing change was remarkable. His pre-lesson video analysis highlighted what he already knew to be a problem: Overswinging. His eight-iron was going past parallel and his Extensor Action was...well, it wasn't. When we reached the Total Motion stage of his training, we -- both of us! -- went to work in ernest to correct these malfuncitons.

The root causes were twofold. First, 300D had to learn how to properly apply Extensor Aciton. Actually, our work in this area had begun with the Chips and Pitches of the Basic Motion Curriculum and needed only to be expanded into the Total Motion. The other bugaboo was a Cocked Right Wrist at the Top. He already understood (intellectually) that the Right Wrist only Bends at the Top (and does not Cock). Unfortunately, his Hands did not! Plus, they were stubborn. It was not enough to know that they were not going along with the program. We had to figure out how to make it happen.

After a couple of blind alleys, we hit paydirt. We took the motion apart and came up with a special piece-by-piece assembly exercise that nailed the correct Mechanic. That was his big "Aha!" Moment. With his new Bent Right Wrist in place, he learned to limit his Motion to a Straight Line Top (10-23-A). Then, when we put in place the correct On Plane Start Down, his improvement was immediate and dramatic. It is no exaggeration to say that he looked like a completely different player: More structured, more disciplined, more Powerful.

From there it was a cakewalk. He soon learned he could hit the Ball every bit as far as with his old Swing, but much more consistently. After he had completed the mashing of an adequate number of Iron shots, I handed him the Driver. The sound of Compression echoing through The Swamp is always music to these green ears, and I've got to tell you that I enjoyed 300D's one-man concert!

300D, thank you for the thrill of watching you absorb and apply the principles of The Golfing Machine. It was an impressive demonstration, and I am confident that your plummet into the realm of the single-digit handicap is imminent. In fact, I would say that achievement is coming sooner rather than later.